Chapter 60
Black Butterfly Disease.
The curse that threatens Daphne’s lifespan moment by moment.
No matter how much she accumulates power and becomes stronger, if she can’t lift the curse, she’ll die with a thud.
So Daphne wanted to somehow cure the Black Butterfly Disease.
“Okay. If it weren’t for that, I would have killed you long ago.”
“What did I do…….”
Sio pouted his lips, then soon leaned forward, propped his chin, and looked at Daphne with sparkling eyes.
“I know the way to lift the curse. But I also know that it can’t be done right now.”
“……What are you saying. You really have a talent for making simple things difficult.”
“Originally, sages are all like that. They have to look profound.”
Sio continued before Daphne could say more.
“The reason it can’t be done right now is because you have to kill the black mage who cast that curse. Ta-da, easy, right?”
Daphne narrowed her brows. Then Sio hurriedly added.
“So, in such an advanced curse, a portion of the caster’s power is included, and only by completely eliminating that power can the curse be lifted. Do you understand?”
“I know that much. But I heard the guy who cursed me is dead?”
“Yes. But there will be another black mage who inherited the remaining power except for that portion.”
“Speak simply. If you speak in a way that’s hard for me to understand one more time, I’ll hit you.”
Sio chose his words while narrowly dodging Daphne’s swinging fist.
“Black mages don’t completely disappear just because they die. When they die, their power returns to subspace, and it’s distributed to newly awakening black mages. In short, the power circulates.”
Daphne rolled her eyes while mulling over his words.
“So, you’re saying there might be someone who inherited the power of the guy who cursed this body?”
“Exactly that. Someone who inherited that much power is probably the leader of the specters. If you kill the leader of the specters, the curse will be lifted too.”
Shio smiled brightly and briefly shook his clenched fist.
“Fighting. Do your best!”
“If you tease me one more time, I’ll really hit you.”
“It wasn’t teasing, it was cheering.”
Shio, drooping his eye corners and pouting his lips, looked pitiful like a rain-soaked puppy.
But Daphne was the role to beat the owner who made the puppy get rained on, not the one to comfort the puppy.
Moreover, Shio wasn’t actually a pitiful puppy, nor was he as cute as a puppy.
“This is the last warning. If you act cute one more time, I’ll shave off all that hair.”
“……That’s a bit scary.”
Daphne ignored Sio who was hesitantly backing away and clicked her tongue.
“It’s really complicated. To confront those guys, I need to regain my original power, and to regain my original power, I need to lift the curse, but to do that, I need to confront those guys again.”
Watching Daphne fidgeting her fingers, Shio tilted his head.
“Isn’t there power that can only be developed with that body?”
“With this body only?”
“I heard you manifested sword aura. Wouldn’t it be good to hone that well?”
Shio’s words are somewhat correct.
Even when she was Celus, what she couldn’t manifest was sword aura.
But how that sword aura was manifested, and how to use sword aura is still unknown.
It seems like the sword aura came out after being extremely immersed in something……. Daphne scratched her head.
“I haven’t manifested it since then. I still don’t know how to make that power come out.”
“Ah. Still at the beginner stage.”
“Therefore, until I properly understand sword aura, I plan to hone magic first for now.”
“Magic?”
Shio stroked his chin and fell into thought for a moment.
“In the long term, the sword is better for dealing with black mages. But since you’re not handling the sword that well now,
magic isn’t bad either.”
Watching him muttering, Daphne was puzzled.
“Why is the sword better in the long term?”
“High-level black mages can nullify magic…… Well, that’s not something to talk about now.”
Those guys had such an ability?
‘Those guys who were groveling in front of me…….’
If they can nullify magic, it seems she can’t just disregard them. Daphne let out a long sigh again.
“Anyway, I need to learn more magic.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Help me with that.”
“……Hmm?”
Shio tilted his head.
“Why me…….”
“Lair.”
“Come on, tell me. What exactly is the problem?”
What on earth is this guy trying to confirm in the lair to act like this. Daphne felt curiosity rising seeing Sio who quickly changed his attitude, but thinking it’s not something to ask now, she brought up the main point.
“This body has only reached 3 stars yet. I haven’t found even half of my original power.”
“Hmm. Considering the state of that body, 3 stars isn’t bad.”
“No. It’s very bad. 3-star magic doesn’t exert much power.”
“What are you saying? You can sufficiently increase lethality even with 3-star magic.”
“What?”
Daphne asked back as if she didn’t understand well. Shio’s eyes narrowed and slightly lifted. It was an interested expression.
“Lady Daphne was originally a being abundant in magic power. So, you didn’t learn ways to conserve magic power.”
“That’s right. I was a great being one with nature.”
“But now you’re human.”
“…….”
“Shouldn’t you use magic in the human way?”
Use magic power in the human way?
Since she had never thought of that before, Daphne couldn’t understand it at once.
As if noticing such Daphne, Sio slightly raised his magic power.
“This is a general fireball. Just made without any thought.”
Finishing his words, Sio raised his right index finger as if to say look. As soon as he did, a fireball the size of a dinner plate flared up. He then raised his left index finger.
“And this is a fireball with magic power maximized in concentration.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a fireball smaller than a fist was created.
“Do you see the difference?”
Clearly, the left fireball is superior.
Rather than clumsily making it large, concentrating the magic power and honing only the performance seemed to have higher lethality.
“…….”
Daphne half-opened her mouth, then closed it.
Come to think of it, Daphne had always made general fireballs the size of the right one. Since she had never even thought of concentrating magic power in the first place. Daphne’s brows narrowed.
“It’s annoying.”
“Huh?”
“There’s no way I can’t do what the likes of you can do!”
“……Huh?”
“Wait and see! I’ll do it right away!”
“Oh. You’re jealous.”
“Shut up!”
Daphne concentrated her mind.
In the past, just chanting the spell would have created a fireball poof, but this time, without doing that, she tries the so-called formula calculation in her head.
She concentrates as much as possible to concentrate the magic power and calculates a fireball with high destructive power.
And not long after,
“Huhuhu.”
Daphne was able to create a fireball smaller than the one Sio made. The degree of magic power concentration is much more precise than his.
“Do you see? I did better than you!”
“Oh, that’s good.”
“Praise more intensely!”
“Wow. You’re the best.”
“More!”
“The moment I see it, my heart stops and I can’t breathe, it’s such a great and amazing magic. In my long-lived years, I’ve never seen such a perfect fireball. Ah, what an honor. I’ll remember today’s event until I die.”
“Huhuhuhu!”
Daphne shrugged her shoulders up and down, praising her own greatness.
However, that pride was momentary.
“Now, try making about 10 of those.”
Because an out-of-the-blue remark was heard.
“No matter how much you concentrated the mana, the lethality is only about double. If you make several, it will become magic comparable to 5-star.”
“……Even so, 10?”
“Ah, can’t you? Then it can’t be hel…….”
“No! I’ll do it! I can do it! Because I’m greater than you!”
“Yes, yes. Fighting.”
Somehow feeling like Sio was provoking her, but since she didn’t think his words were wrong, Daphne silently followed his words.
One, two, three…… Ah, ten and a half.
“U, ah……!”
“Oh. Six.”
Daphne barely made six fist-sized fireballs, and seeing that, Sio was a bit surprised.
He told her to make ten, but he expected at most three or four.
‘A dragon is definitely a dragon. The mana sensitivity is amazing.’
Shio lightly smiled while raising his evaluation of Daphne inside him by one level.
“For the first attempt, this is amazing, right?”
“No! I will definitely make ten!”
“Yes, yes. But don’t get mana exhaustion. Do your bes…… Hmm?”
At that time, Shio could feel gazes looking at him. When he turned his head quickly, Arius and Brisa who had approached nearby at some point, and Lloyd and some knights were staring at them with mouths wide open.
“Da, Daphne?”
Among them, the first to speak was Arius.
“You…… what?”
And the sword dropped from Lloyd’s hand, who had his mouth open together.
“How can you use magic?”
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By Anna 💓
